Barium Springs Home for Children has doubled the range of its operations in the last two years, a move that earned it the highest authorization for a provider agency and a $200,000 grant from the Duke Endowment.
The grant, which is “to offset transitional costs associated with recent mergers and acquisitions,” will counteract expenses the Home incurred while bringing Rainbow Center, Our Father’s Place, Appalachian Family Innovations and Mountain Youth Resources into the fold of the organization.
The Home is now structured regionally. The eastern region includes the Troutman campus, a Winston-Salem office and a counseling office in Mooresville. The central region stretches from Wilkesboro to Morganton and the third region includes Asheville and three smaller cities in the 70 miles west of Asheville.
“As the need increases and the resources decrease, we are finding it’s important to find new ways to come together to be as efficient as we can and to provide as many resources as we can as well,” said John Koppelmeyer, president and CEO of the Home.
The Home’s acquisitions allowed it to acquire the title Critical Access Behavioral Health Agency (CABHA), a category of provider agency created by the state in 2011 in an attempt to ensure mental health providers could comprehensively care for all their patients.
Organizations that choose not to pursue CABHA status do not receive authorization on what Koppelmeyer called “an array of mental health-type services.”
For the Home, it either meant downsizing or networking with other care providers. The Home chose to take the lead and brought four nonprofits under its umbrella, but not before Koppelmeyer said everything was batted around as a possibility.
“By moving down that (CABHA) path, it creates opportunities for us to thrive, not just survive,” Koppelmeyer said.
None of the four nonprofits the Home acquired were forced to downsize. Koppelmeyer said the Home now has a larger geographical footprint and greater flexibility in its ability to provide for a growing client base.
The Home served more than 3,000 children and families in 2011. The amount in 2010 was about 2,000.
The Duke Endowment grant will be paid over the course of three years. The Home has received the first check. The Duke Endowment distributed nearly $113 million in 2011 to support organizations across the Carolinas.
The Home employs a full-time grant writer. Last year, the organization pulled in $150,000 from grants. Its total operating budget is $22 million.
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